Polaris Dawn private mission member Sarah Gillis played a Star Wars tune on her violin. The video of the space orchestra was transmitted to Earth using the Starlink system.
Sarah Gillis is an engineer at SpaceX. On September 12, she participated in the first-ever private spacewalk. A day later, a video of Gillis playing a Star Wars tune on the violin was posted on social media.
“As we travel around our beautiful planet Earth on this five-day mission, we wanted to share this special music moment with you. Bringing together global talent, this performance symbolizes unity and hope, highlighting the resilience and potential of children everywhere,” Gillis said at the beginning of the video.
The tune from the video is called “Rey’s Theme”. It was written by composer John Williams for the movie Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Gillis’ violin part was complemented by performances of youth orchestras from the United States, Brazil, Uganda, Sweden, Venezuela and Haiti. John Williams also appears in the video, as well as three other Polaris Dawn mission crew members: commander Jared Isaacman, pilot Scott Poteet and mission specialist Anna Menon.
The video was created in collaboration with St. Jude’s Hospital, for which Polaris Dawn raises money throughout the flight, as well as El Sistema USA’s initiative to promote music education. “Inspired by the universal language of music and the relentless fight against childhood cancers and diseases, this moment was created with the hope of inspiring the next generation to look towards the stars,” said a statement posted on the Polaris program’s website.
The Polaris Dawn mission was launched on September 10 and celebrated a number of achievements, including the first private spacewalk and breaking the flight altitude record set back in 1966 by the Gemini 11 mission. The astronauts also collected data on the radiation environment and conducted a number of medical studies and experiments.
The flight ended on September 15. Crew Dragon with four astronauts successfully landed in the waters of the Gulf of Mexico.
